Laminated glass sheets typically include a core glass layer surrounded by first and second clad glass layers. The composition of the core glass and the clad glass may be selected to have different properties in order to provide desired advantages in the resulting laminate. One significant beneficial property obtainable in the laminate is increased strength and damage resistance: by properly selecting the clad glass and the core glass in connection and the process conditions for forming the laminate (such as by choosing a core glass having a higher CTE than the clad glass), the clad layers in the final laminate sheet will be in compression, resulting in a glass laminate sheet that significantly resists damage and breaking. These and other desirable properties can be obtained from glass laminate sheets.
An isopipe is a convenient apparatus for production of two thin glass sheets and an isopipe may beneficially be used to form the cladding of a glass laminate sheet. However, an isopipe is typically best suited for a rather narrow range of flow rates and viscosities. If flow rates and/or viscosities are changed to accommodate different clad glass compositions to produce sheets optimized for various differing uses, it will typically be the case that the isopipe needs to be tilted to maintain a flat flow profile over the width of the resulting sheet(s). Providing a mechanism for such tilting may be difficult within the constraints of the equipment space available in the manufacturing environment. Furthermore tilting may be only allow for a relatively limited range of different viscosities and flow rates. A new clad forming device and method able to accommodate a wide range of glass viscosities and flow rates within a small equipment footprint would accordingly be useful.